My server is an early 64 bit ex XP machine of mid noughties vintage.
My desktop is a modern board with 8GB RAM and an SSD.
The ONLY two things that run faster on te desktop, once SSD/spinning rust differences are accounted for, are real time games and video processing.
If you dont do either an XP era machine should work fine - at least on Linux.
No dounbt Windows has hooks to make it run like a dog on older hardware.
Win10 runs fine on older hardware.
if one wants a really quiet PC an SSD avoids even the little noise from a quiet HDD on anti-vibration mounts
Since all our desktops have at least 2 HDDs (and some have four) and they are terabytes, not really an issue!
I had an HDD SATA drive go south on my main machine, & decided to install an SDD in place of it. After copying Debian "Stretch" Linux on to it, I rebooted & from the get-go it now boots in the KDE desktop in 9 seconds flat. I am seriously thinking of changing the HDDs on my other machines.
CPU:AMD FX-8350 Eight-Core @ 4.00GHz, RAM:16GB Kingston HyperX Fury.
Or here. I have three desktops.
My new lab has 96 desktops each with a 2nd monitor. These desktops being all-in-one don;lt need a box on the floor.
Where do others put their desktops ?
It's the fan that is noisy on mine. I know you can go fanless (or water cooled).
very similar here for linux Mint
The joke ius that once that has booted, windows XP in a 32 bit virtual machine is about 7s second! Or faster if resiuming from a live image
I am down to the one. Plus a laptop to watch videos and TV in bed (bliss) . Plus a raspberry Pi to handle all my hifi needs. Plus a smart phone to control the Pi
And a couple of smart TVs as well
And of course my weary old server.
try finding a fanless power supply
A "little" more expensive ...
Mine's on the desk with the monitor on top.
Just like in the 1980s :-)
Owain
I have a rack of that wiggle wire shelving[1] sat in the corner of the office. Bottom shelf takes a couple of 1kVA UPSs, and a pair of midi tower base units. Next one up, supplementary network switch, external drives, KVM switch etc. Next flatbed scanner, spare media etc. Next up some more printers and scanners, and then top shelf, paper and a pile of "stuff".
The the "healing" bench to my right for machines I am fixing etc, and then I have a SFF box and screen setup as a copy station in the cubby space of my built in office furniture:
I can hardly hear my mac mini or my iMac fans they both have fans that spin slowly as the design is better as it just doesn't need brute force using cheap fans to cool it.
Presumably the reverse must be true.
If they scaled up these better designed iMac fans (although its surprising Dyson didn't get there first) then presumably they could make much more efficient wind turbines. With a gentle breeze generating Gigawatts of power.
So that everybody would be happy.
michael adams
...
Buy an iMac . Initially expensive but today is the 9th Birthday of mine. not a perfect record but whenever it has gone wrong the local Apple shop has repaired it F.O.C. several times in the last 9 years
Previously running several PC / M/S machines They would fail catastrophically and cost £££ each time to repair or replace. An iMac starts each day in an instant and loads the apps instantly It's very different but you just have to look at the packaging to see that whatever you buy is good quality.
My laptop is quiet..
until you start using four cores on its i7 processor and the GPU 100%.
then you can hear the whine.
My desktops are all home built in big Corsair cases (Obsidian 500D). Lots of space, big thermostatically controlled fans that spin slowly (if at all) and quietly. And the graphics card is passively cooled. Some of them have four spinning disk, but the cases do have some soundproofing and the noise is very low.
I've always wondered: is it possible to buy a server and use it as a PC?
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